Dutch oven bread

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon rapid-rise active yeast

1 1/2 cups water
1 Dutch oven

Directions:

The night before: in a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a gummy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap or towel and set aside for 12 - 18 hours. I do this the night before I want to bake it. 


The next morning: Put the dutch oven into the oven and heat to 450 degrees. 

Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.

 

Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. (You don't need to oil the dutch oven)  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. 


I absolutely love this bread, I discovered the recipe at this site. The smell of it baking in the oven is my favorite smells. This recipe makes a small loaf and for the picture we doubled the recipe and baked it for 1 hour covered and uncovered for 5 minutes. I am going to play with the recipe more and see if I can add some different flavors.